{{Short description|American agronomist (1910–1992)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Arthur Theodore Mosher | image = | image_size = 180px | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|mf=y|1910|10|4}} | birth_place = Ames, Iowa, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=y|1992|09|27|1910|10|4}} | death_place = Black Mountain, North Carolina, U.S. | field = {{ubl|Agricultural economics|Agricultural extension}} | work_institutions = {{ubl|Allahabad Agricultural Institute|University of Chicago}} | alma_mater = {{ubl|University of Illinois|University of Chicago}} }}
'''Arthur Theodore Mosher ''' (October 4, 1910 – September 27, 1992), was an American agriculture development specialist who was the president of the Agricultural Development Council and the Principal of the Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (at the time it was called Allahabad Agricultural Institute) in India.<ref name ="nytobit">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/30/us/arthur-mosher-82-international-expert-on-agricultural-aid.html|title=Arthur Mosher, 82, International Expert On Agricultural Aid|author=Lee A. Daniels|work=The New York Times|date=30 September 1992 |accessdate=2012-11-22}}</ref>
==Early life and work== Mosher was originally from Ames, Iowa, receiving his bachelor's and master's degrees in agriculture and agriculture economics from the University of Illinois and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago.<ref name ="nytobit"/> In the 1930s he served on a Presbyterian Church mission to India.<ref name ="nytobit"/>
He returned to India and became principal of the school which would later be named Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences.<ref name ="nytobit"/> The school credits him with leading during a time of major expansion<ref name="SHIATS">{{cite web|url=http://www.shiats.edu.in/history.asp|title=SHIATS: History|last=SHIATS|publisher=Sam Higginbottom Institute|accessdate=25 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127195139/http://www.shiats.edu.in/history.asp|archive-date=27 January 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the introduction of "''Jamuna Par Punar yojna''", the extension project of recruiting workers at the village level.<ref name="SHIATS"/>
He began working for the Agricultural Development Council and became both the executive director (1957 to 1967) and president (1967 to 1973).<ref name ="nytobit"/> While Mosher was head of the Council of Economic and Cultural Affairs division of the ADC, he continued a practice of his predecessor in exercising "considerable censorship" over the texts the organization approved to be delivered to extension offices throughout the world, eliminating many requests for books on social and cultural topics.<ref name="HadizDhakidae2005">{{cite book|last1=Hadiz|first1=Vedi R.|last2=Dhakidae|first2=Daniel|title=Social Science and Power in Indonesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WM3_ulRJFlkC&pg=PA114|accessdate=24 November 2012|year=2005|publisher=Equinox Publishing|isbn=9789793780016|pages=114–}}</ref>
==''Getting Agriculture Moving''== In 1965, while Director of CECA-ADC, he wrote ''Getting Agriculture Moving: essentials for development and modernization'' which was translated into many languages and promoted a "modernization theory"<ref name="HadizDhakidae2005"/> which typified the aid approach of the time.<ref name="KirkpatrickClarke2002">{{cite book|last1=Kirkpatrick|first1=Colin H.|last2=Clarke|first2=Ron|last3=Polidano|first3=Charles|title=Handbook on Development Policy and Management|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nkbHRYesCwC&pg=PA79|accessdate=24 November 2012|year=2002|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|isbn=9781840641424|pages=79–}}</ref> In his writing, Mosher identified five components necessary for successful rural and agricultural development, which was by 1987 "particularly influential" in promoting a "systems analysis" approach to development that recognizes complex interactions.<ref name="Cohen1987">{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=John M.|title=Integrated Rural Development: The Ethiopian Experience and the Debate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwW1oiV2SBIC&pg=PA21|accessdate=24 November 2012|year=1987|publisher=Nordic Africa Institute|isbn=9789171062673|pages=21–37 and 229}}</ref> The framework developed from a series of individual papers.<ref name="Cohen1987"/>
The five components that Mosher identified as necessary for development were: *a market for the products, *adaptability to changing technologies, *locally available inputs such as equipment and supplies, *increasing the quality and amount of agricultural land, *the existence of a national plan to support agricultural development.<ref name="Cohen1987"/>
The title of the work was adopted by Peter Timmer for his work ''Getting Agriculture Moving: Do Market's Send the Right signals?''<ref name="Rothenberg1992">{{cite book|last=Rothenberg|first=Winifred Barr|title=From Market-Places to a Market Economy: The Transformation of Rural Massachusetts, 1750-1850|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TpqPM17KHf4C&pg=PA216|accessdate=24 November 2012|date=1992-11-15|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226729534|pages=216–}}</ref> Timmer<ref name="EicherStaatz1998">{{cite book|last=Timmer|first=Peter|editor=John M. Staatz & Carl K. Eicher|title=International Agricultural Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OHsragTfYkC&pg=PA71|accessdate=24 November 2012|date=1998-10-22|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9780801858796|pages=71–}}</ref> and others<ref name="ChenerySrinivasan1988">{{cite book|last1=Chenery|first1=Hollis Burnley|last2=Srinivasan|first2=T. N. (Thirukodikaval Nilakanta|title=Handbook of Development Economics: Volume I|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iglg02_9ZOQC&pg=PA280|accessdate=25 November 2012|year=1988|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9780444703378|pages=280–}}</ref> place Mosher's focus on "getting agriculture moving" as appropriate for the first of four phases of development.
==Personal life== Mosher was married to Alice (née Wynne Hall) and together they had four children, Anne, William, Ted, and Richard.<ref name ="nytobit"/> Mosher lived in Ithaca, New York for several years before moving to Black Mountain, North Carolina where he died in 1992.<ref name ="nytobit"/>
==Awards== * Presidential World Without Hunger Award (1984)<ref name ="nytobit"/> * American Agricultural Economics Association - Fellow (1976)<ref name ="nytobit"/>
==Selected bibliography== *Getting Agriculture Moving: essentials for development and modernization *Training manual for group study of Getting agriculture moving *Selected readings to accompany Getting agriculture moving, co authored with Raymond Borton *Case Studies to Accompany Getting Agriculture Moving, co authored with Borton *Getting agriculture moving; how modern farming can provide a better life, co authored with Deborah Homes *Technical co-operation in Latin-American agriculture *Serving agriculture as an administrator *An introduction to agricultural extension *Images of development : theirs and ours *The story of Ram Lal, God's partner; the meaning and application of Christianity to village life *Source book of rural missions. Volume 1, Selected readings, contributor *This is India
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosher, Arthur T.}} Category:American Presbyterians Category:University of Illinois System alumni Category:1992 deaths Category:1910 births Category:20th-century American agronomists